*For most of the Wakefield "conflict of interest" articles posted on the site, click here (check periodically for updates)

►February 26, 2004 - Most parents will allow MMR jab - icSouthLondon - "Eight out of 10 British parents now think the triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination is safe and almost nine in 10 would give it to their child, according to a new poll ...Two years ago the number who thought it was safe was seven in ten."

Comment:  If I understand this poll correctly, it shows that around 1 in 10 parents thinks the MMR is not safe but would still give it to their child.  Can that be? 

►February 26, 2004 - Was the original MMR study unethical? - The Guardian, UK - "Not entirely. What has got lost in the outcry over the undisclosed conflict of interest of Andrew Wakefield, the lead researcher, is that the Lancet, which published his study in February 1998, does not regret publishing the core findings. Only one aspect of it (albeit the most contentious) - the linking of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) to bowel disease and autism - does editor Richard Horton consider 'entirely flawed'...Dr Horton still considers the paper important because it identified a new syndrome suffered by children who had symptoms both of chronic bowel disease and autism. 'I do not regret for one second publishing details of this new syndrome,' he said...'"I'm disappointed that Liam Donaldson [chief medical officer] has stated this was poor science. By stating that he dismisses a very important novel observation.'"

►February 26, 2004 - Give us the choice of vaccines - Letters to the Editor - The Telegraph, UK - "Have you any idea how frustrating it is to read or listen to the reams of opinion on the MMR debate and to feel that last on the list of importance are the very children damaged, as their parents believe, by the vaccine?...But deep down there is utter desolation that something that is of paramount importance in our lives is like a toy being batted back and forth. Who was to know what a hot political potato this would turn out to be?" 

►February 27, 2004 - MMR scientist did not hide link with legal case, letter reveals - by Jeremy Laurence, Health Editor, The Independent, UK - "Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who sparked the MMR scare with a paper in The Lancet six years ago, did not cover up his links with the Legal Aid Board, it emerged yesterday...Dr Wakefield was accused at the weekend of failing to disclose the conflict of interest over his research at the Royal Free Hospital in London, suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccination and bowel disease and autism, which has led tens of thousands of parents to boycott the triple vaccination...But he did reveal his links with the Legal Aid Board in a letter published in The Lancet on 2 May 1998, less than three months after his original research paper."

Comment:  "RFD Comment:  'The plot thickens...'" To read the rest of this comment and get the kind of insight into health issues only Nicholas Regush can provide, go to www.redflagsdaily.com (Much of the website now requires a subscription.)

►February 27, 2004 - Journalist takes MMR battle away from high court - MediaGuardian, UK - "A freelance journalist is hoping to use his upcoming legal action against medical journal the Lancet to move the debate about the controversial MMR jab from the high court to a county court in south London.,,Brian Deer said he was taking his claim for damages relating to a breach of confidentiality over his exclusive story on the man behind the claims that MMR may be linked to autism to Lambeth county court on Monday.

►February 26, 2004 - MMR and autism - A dose of dissent - Doubt has been cast on the paper that started the MMR-and-autism scare - The Economist

►February 26, 2004 - Immunization bill passes Senate - AP via Charleston Daily Mail - "Senators passed a bill that would expand mandatory immunizations for public school students while for the first time allowing them to decline shots for religious reasons."

Comment:  It is not clear from this whether or not the ambiguous wording in the bill re: homeschoolers (i.e., can they be charged with a misdemeanor and fined for not vaccinating?) has been dealt with. 

►February 26, 2004 - Mix of Chemicals Plus Stress Damages Brain, Liver in Animals and Likely in Humans - AScribe Newswire - "Stress is a well known culprit in disease, but now researchers have shown that stress can intensify the effects of relatively safe chemicals, making them very harmful to the brain and liver in animals and likely in humans, as well...Even short-term exposure to specific chemicals -- just 28 days -- when combined with stress was enough to cause widespread cellular damage in the brain and liver of rats, said Mohamed Abou Donia, Ph.D., a Duke pharmacologist and senior author of the study."

►February 26, 2004 - Naturopathy: Fibroids Caused by Hormonal Imbalances - The New Straits Times via Healthy News

►February 26, 2004 - Whence the Beef? - The gruesome trip from pasture to platter (and how to ensure that it's not so bad). - http://slate.msn.com

►February 26, 2004 - Mom's Smoking Tied to Adult Children's Lung Disease - Reuters Health via Yahoo!

►February 26, 2004 - Tiny doses of some toxins may make body stronger, theory says - Knight Ridder Newspapers via www.kentucky.com

►February 26, 2004 - Focused instruction can help kids with dyslexia - Research suggests specialized training exercises stimulate brain areas previously thought to be 'broken' - Newsday

►February 26, 2004 - Vaccine Program Remedies Must Be Exhausted Before Filing Suit - The Legal Intelligencer via www.law.com - "A couple whose son suffers from autism because of an alleged adverse reaction to thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative once present in vaccines for newborns, may not file suit in Pennsylvania against a group of pharmaceutical companies until they exhaust administrative remedies available through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled...According to the Superior Court opinion, the federal Vaccine Act of 1986 requires that before commencing any state or federal claims, vaccine claimants must first file a petition with the "no-fault" compensation program, a special tribunal of the Federal Court of Claims known as the Vaccine Court and located in Bethesda, Md."

►February 26, 2004 - Defence health goes under the microscope - www.abc.net.au

►February 26, 2004 - Doubt cast on free radical theory - Scientists have questioned a widely accepted theory for a cause of diseases such as cancer and arthritis. - BBC

►February 26, 2004 - Official Defends Polio Vaccine Boycott - AP via Ledger-Enquirer

►February 27, 2004 - FDA Debates More Restrictions on Accutane - AP via The Herald-Sun 

►February 27, 2004 - FDA OKs First-Of-A-Kind Colon Cancer Drug - AP via The Herald-Sun 

►February 27, 2004 - New Type of Cancer Drug Approved - FDA Hails Therapy That Starves Tumors by Blocking Their Blood Supply (requires registration) - Washington Post 

►February 26, 2004 - Accutane Linked to Birth Defects, Should Be Pulled From Market, Public Citizen Tells FDA - Public Citizen 

►February 26, 2004 - Doubt cast on free radical theory - Scientists have questioned a widely accepted theory for a cause of diseases such as cancer and arthritis - BBC News 

►February 26, 2004 - Bush plan for mercury lambasted - Critics say the proposal would actually weaken control over industry (requires registration) - Charlotte Observer

►March 11, 2004 - The Dawn of McScience - (book review: Science in the Private Interest: Has the Lure of Profits Corrupted Biomedical Research?) - The New York Review of Books 

►February 27, 2004 - Vaccination: Mother's anger at withdrawal of MMR jab legal aid - The mother of an autistic child today hit out at a decision to cut legal aid for families who are attempting to prove the MMR jab ruined their children's lives - The Peterborough Today, UK - "'To pull funding at a time when the evidence is quite clearly becoming extremely strong is absolutely outrageous...'It's the ultimate insult to deny that these children are ill and have got a problem and to deny them their day in court.'"

►February 26, 2004 - MMR and autism - A dose of dissent - The Economist - "A FEW years ago Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, came up with the idea of the “meme”. He was trying to make the slippery problem of the evolution of human culture as tractable as that of biological evolution, and he thought that if cultural information could somehow be divided into separately transmissible elements, in the way that biologically heritable information is divided into genes, the rest might follow. A successful meme, he speculated, might pass from person to person like a virus...Few recent memes have been more successful than the one which causes many people, particularly in Britain, to believe that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine can cause autism in children. That meme has been responsible for a fall in vaccination rates in Britain from more than 90% to less than 80% over the past six years (see chart)."

Comment:  Perhaps the "meme" is that the MMR vaccine does NOT cause autism.  Given that there is a growing body of evidence that it is involved, the self-satisfied criticizers of those thought to be swept up in an allegedly incorrect idea, might better redirect their gaze to themselves. 

►March 1, 2004 - A comparative evaluation of the effects of MMR immunization and mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines on the population prevalence of autism - journal article (Medical Science Monitor) (abstract)

►February 27, 2004 - MP gathers support for vaccine - The Islander via www.kangarooisland.yourguide.com.au

►February 26, 2004 - New Sinus and Allergy Guidelines Recommend Omnicef(R) as First-Line Treatment Option for Acute Bacterial Sinusitis - Approximately 20 Million Cases of Acute Bacterial Sinusitis Diagnosed Each Year - Abbott Laboratories via PRNewswire-FirstCall via Yahoo!

►February 27, 2004 - Deadly apathy - comment - Townsville Bulletin

►February 27, 2004 - Link between antibiotics, breast cancer stirs debate - Cox News Service via the Arizona Republic

►February 27, 2004 - Australian sailors misled about anthrax vaccinations for Iraq war - International Committee of the Fourth International via www.wsws.org

►February 27, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine pioneer lectures - The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

►February 27, 2004 - Journals plan regulation scheme - Medical journals should have a code of conduct, similar to that which governs newspapers, an ethics body has said. - BBC

►February 27, 2004 - Vaccines less risky than diseases - editorial - Indianapolis Star

►February 26, 2004 - Pneumonia shots advocated - Capital Journal

►February 26, 2004 - Human bird flu vaccine nearly ready - Could be widely available in 3-6 months, scientists say - Reuters via MSNBC

►February 27, 2004 - UN conference hears bird flu crisis poses "unprecedented" threat - AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com - "'Never in the past have we witnessed an avian virus circulating so quickly in such a large part of the world,' he said in a statement as experts from 23 Asia Pacific nations convened for three days of talks...Vallat said the immediate priority for affected nations was to stop the virus in its tracks by slaughtering infected poultry as well as birds that had come in contact with them."

►February 26, 2004 - Health Asia - Better Detection Key to Avoiding New Bird Flu Crisis - If Asia is to avoid another avian flu crisis, the region has to change the current ways that its poultry industry has been expanding and put into place new surveillance systems to detect animal diseases, experts said here Thursday. - Inter Press Service News Agency

►February 26, 2004 - Intranasal Influenza Vaccine Used in Switzerland During 2000-2001 Season Apparently Conferred a High Risk of Bell's Palsy - New England Journal of Medicine via Doctor's Guide - "The intranasal influenza vaccine used during the 2000-2001 influenza season in Switzerland was associated with a greatly increased risk of Bell's palsy that was highest during the second month after vaccination. This inactivated virosomal-subunit influenza vaccine, licensed only in Switzerland, is no longer in use...'In contrast, no significant risk of Bell's palsy was found to be associated with the parenteral influenza vaccines,' reports Margot Mutsch, PhD, MPH, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Travellers' Health, in Zurich, and colleagues."

Comment:  The authors of this study are to be commended for following these vaccinees for more than a month.

►February 26, 2004 - Bush Plan to Cut Mercury Emissions 'Dangerously Inadequate,' Environmental Activists say - Voice of America

►February 26, 2004 - Infant Vaccine Shortage Little Cause for Concern - The Intelligencer & Wheeling News Register

►February 26, 2004 - African polio vaccination drive ends without reaching heart of outbreak - AFP via Yahoo!

►February 26, 2004 - Islamic leaders blamed for return of polio - Reuters via The New Zealand Herald

►February 26, 2004 - Oh, Deer - Is chronic wasting disease the new mad cow? - http://slate.msn.com

►February 26, 2004 - EPA rules on mercury responsible - guest column - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

►February 26, 2004 - Scientific Tests Led to Bird Flu Upgrade - Sophisticated Tests Led Scientists to Upgrade Bird Flu Risk - AP via ABC News

►February 26, 2004 - Conditions 'ripe' for human bird flu - AP via The Australian

►February 26, 2004 - Schools send hundreds home for lack of shots - Multnomah County districts turn away students missing vaccines for diseases from mumps to chickenpox - The Oregonian via www.oregonlive.com

►February 26, 2004 - Anti-MMR parents threatened with being branded child abusers - Medical News Today - "The Daily Mail (UK newspaper) says that parents who blame the MMR vaccine on their children’s autism are being accused of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. This means they are deliberately harming their children to bring attention to themselves."

►February 26, 2004 - Protein discovered that blocks HIV in monkeys: potential for vaccine and treatment research - Nature via www.aidsmap.com

►February 26, 2004 - Most of nasal spray flu vaccine unsold - UPI via The Washington Times - "Eighty percent of the new nasal spray vaccine FluMist, manufactured by MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., went unsold in the United States...MedImmune told a federal panel Tuesday in Atlanta about 4 million doses of leftover FluMist would most likely have to be destroyed."

►February 26, 2004 - Nasal Flu Vaccine Available for Free - The Ledger

►February 26, 2004 - Medical briefing: There’s more to cancer than diet - Times Online, UK

►February 23, 2004 - Is it safe? - Clarksburg Exponent Telegram - "The state Department of Health and Human Resources distributed 68,000 flu vaccine doses this flu season, with 63,000 of them containing a chemical the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has suggested be removed from childhood vaccines..Joe Thornton, state Health and Human Resources spokesman, said 5,000 were pediatric doses that did not contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury."

►February 26, 2004 - 'No permanent' anthrax jab problems - www.abc.net.au

►February 26, 2004 - Autism is 'positive' for Welsh painter - The Western Mail via http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

►February 24, 2004 - Piercing Upper Ear May Cause Infection - Oregon Outbreak Underscores Danger of Upper-Ear Piercing; May Result in Hard-To-Treat Infections - AP via ABC News